Customer Reviews

Malice

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Well, this does it for me. I have no idea what's happened, but a fantastic series just went down the drain. Now I have to wonder who exactly was writing it in the first place, because this is NOT the author I read five years ago. What an absolute mish-mash of junk. HORRIBLE, juvenile, writing style . No point even reviewing the plot. What a shame.

My dismay at the loss of an intelligent, witty mystery series has been tempered by the amusement that comes from how comically bad it has become.

"Malice" is filled with conspirators and mystic happenings. The bands of conspirators include powerful descendents of Celtic smugglers; the Russian Mafia; a band of liberty-loving Constitutionalists; Mole People; Chechen and Islamic terrorists; Basque separatists; a secret federal spy unit; amateur forensic experts; White Supremacists; and a corrupt collegiate athletic association. Where's the Mormon Tabernacle Choir?

Lucy's dreams and visions while under the influence of peyote drive the plot. A prophecy-quoting homeless guy appears on cue. Totemic owls lead to the victim.

There is enough mayhem and derring-do to stock an Austin Powers film. Attempted garroting, roof-stop struggles, a hijacked ferry-boat, ambushes, Mole People battling terrorists, speedboat interceptions, bombings and fiery death.

Yet despite the thrills, the entire clanking machinery rests on one wafer-thin premise - a minority senator's call for Congressional hearings causes a powerful secret society to fear it will be revealed.

That possibility spurs the conspirators to plan an assassination before millions of witnesses at the climax of the St. Patrick's Day parade.

It made me laugh out loud. Since when does a minority congressman's call for investigation get taken that seriously?

Talk about low stakes - it's like the false rape in "Fury" where the crook suborns perjury and allows herself to be sexually battered, all to get a Master's degree in English.

The foiling of the plot is equally thin. None of the sleuthing has revealed any new clues, so with only a poetic phrase and a symbol to guide her, Lucy simply intuits which parade marcher out of 150,000 to follow, and saves the day.

Karp, Marlene and VT have had their family histories re-written. The new authors get the story of Marlene's career wrong - she did NOT start a security service for celebrities, and think of protecting endangered women as a sideline, it was exactly the opposite. Isn't this key to this character's moral core?

The characters have become bizarre. To show Karp as a moral man, the author makes him a grumpy, hypercritical Luddite. Marlene's toughness is shown by having her threaten people with violence if they displease her. Marlene says she'll unman Ned if he doesn't keep a promise - Whoa, what kind of mother-in-law is she going to be? Lucy's sexual bantering is becoming creepily inappropriate. Are we really supposed to admire these people?

Mikey and Richie's visit to the Karp home is a hilarious scene of a dysfunctional family. Marlene belittles her husband in front of the guests when they arrive. She responds to a compliment with a threat to hurt someone. The Karp parents badmouth the twins, who fight in front of the guests. The hostess helpfully points out the discomforts of the guests' intended room. As the guests begin their story, Marlene asks whether it's true that people who live where they come from are racists. The next day while the guests are out, Lucy Karp returns home, upset her room is occupied, so Marlene, who's begun drinking early, has the guests share with the twins. She insists they stay, despite the smell of dirty sox. The children refuse to join the guests at dinner, and later the family learns a friend may be dead.

Wow. Talk about awkward.

The repartee between Tran and Jojola is like a bad buddy movie. The police stand around watching while the Good Guys battle, and meekly do as Lucy says when she tells them who her Daddy is. The Bad Guys don't just kill people, they have to converse with the victim. And, in true bad movie fashion, the end brings together all the Good Guys, no matter how unrelated, for a feel-good scene where they can smile fondly at one another. The plot of the sequel is already revealed. Tanenbaum should just title these things Hoax II, III, IV and V.

Having read all of the Karp saga books with pleasure and looking forward to this latest one it is difficult for me to express my disgust and dismay with the trashy writing Malice offers an unsuspecting reader. Butch, Marlene, Lucy, Ned, Jojoba, Tran, VT, et al become shadow figures totally disinteresting and even unlikable. Just when I thought it could'nt get any worse or more trite it ended with that old Irish drinkers' prayer about "the road rising to meet you". The book is not even entitled to one star. Juvenile writing at best.

I've have read all of the Butch Karp series several times, and yes, I was very dissappointed with the last two books AG (after Gruber). However, I am happy to say that this latest book is much better than the other AG books. In fact, it is almost as compelling, for me, as his earlier books. There are no glaring errors in the characters or their actions that we saw in the other AG books. One reviewer commented about V.T Newbury having a wife and kids in earlier books, he did not! He had a girl friend (in fact many), but no wife and kids. I think his new collaborators (Wendy Walker and Espey Jackson) deserve some, if not all, of the credit for the improvements seen in this novel. Tannebaum has made a very convoluted plot, but one that kept my interest throughout. I can't give this book a 5 star rating, but I think the Butch Karp series has made a comeback with this novel.

I have always previously enjoyed books by this Author. But - Not this one! It is "dis-jointed". There are too many characters to keep up with. The story line keeps jumping around making it confusing. I found it extremely boring and after several days of trying to read it, I found it couldn't keep my concentration going enough to finish it.

Having read many of the books in the Karp/Ciampi series, I was expecting a fast and harmless read, not great literature. This book fails to deliver on many fronts. It picks up where Counterplay, the writers last work, ended. There has been an event which took place at Saint Patricks Cathedral in New York which resulted in Butch having been shot and his Assailant killed by Marlene. The book opens with Butch Karp, in the hospital, recuperting from his wounds. As one would expect from this writer, the bad guys are not finished. Karp,while on medical leave, goes to Idaho in order to aid in the legal defense of his College roommates brother. Lucy hppens to be in the area with her Cowboy boyfriend. Marlene goes out to help and befriends a Basque sheepherder, whose daughter has disappeared. Surpringly enough, the many individual stories are pulled together about three-fourths of the way through the book. If the reader is unfamiliar with renegade Marlene, Truth and Justice Butch and Savant Lucy, stay away from this work. It does dot do well as a stand alone work and the characters are poorly developed and their motivations rather unclear. To a regular reader of the series, this is typical of the writer with frequent twists involving the plot existing. It is a convoluted and not a totally satisfying read.

For years Robert Tanenbaum has written interesting, provocative and entertaining police procedurals/cum courtroom thrillers starring Butch Karp and his very extraordinary family. MALICE is the title of his newest book and is imbued with a sense of darkness that reaches all of the lives of all of the characters. When Butch, now the District Attorney of New York City, is gunned down on the street, his wife Marlene Ciampi kills the shooter. Though badly wounded Karp will make a fine recovery and is visited by a shady character named Grale who brings a warning: a villain is in place among Butch's closest minions.
As he recovers, Karp takes a morning walk every day and is surprised to be approached by an acquaintance, who invites him to breakfast with a group of retirees. The group discusses law, philosophy, history and any interesting topic on the table. Ultimately Butch is called upon to explain Sir Walter Raleigh's role in influencing a major part of the United States Constitution. This becomes very relevent later in the story when Karp goes to Idaho to defend a baseball coach in a civil case. His wife Marlene travels out there to help Butch. But after meeting a charming older man who asks her for help in finding his missing daughter, a college coed, Marlene goes into high gear to find out exactly what happened to the girl. The Karp/Ciampi daughter Lucy is living on a ranch in New Mexico where she is still examining her "visions" and highly attuned intuition. When a family friend approaches her with an interesting conundrum: to help decipher a "Manx" code, she is on the next plane back to the city to find the only person she knows can help.
While the cases are not tightly connected, friends and acquaintances are responsible for involving each of the characters. Tanenbaum is at his best when writing complicated plots populated by eccentric and/or extremely bizarre characters. MALICE certainly has its fair share and readers can be assured they won't be disappointed in this perfect vacation read.
BARBARA LIPKIEN GERSHENBAUM

I too have been a longtime fan of Robert Tanenbaum's Bruce Karp series. Longtime, and no more. I struggled to piece together the plot lines in this book. Aryan nation? Sports association? Vietnamese warrior? Speaking multiple languages? Peyote trip? Indian healer? Murder? Secret society? And, of course, Bruce Karp can now practice law in Idaho?(Oh, maybe Mr. Karp is excused from taking the bar exam?) Please, Mr. Tanenbaum, we are not that stupid. This book was so disjointed and written so poorly that it was difficult to follow what was taking place. The plot lines were outrageously drawn and stretched out ad nauseum during the vast majority of the book. The last few chapters pulled together these plot lines in the most ridiculous and unbelievably rapid sequence. Mr. Tanenbaum, please go back to your old way of writing -- it was enjoyable. Don't torture us anymore.

I was such a big fan of the Karps. I must have read everyone of the books at least 3 times. Then I read Hoax which was ironically titled because it was all the previous books which was the hoax. Only after I looked on Amazon for reviews of the book did I realize what had happened. IT WAS GRUBER! The stuff he writes alone is a bit over the top for me, but enjoyable in it's way. I guess Gruber provided the imagination, character development and plot while Tannenbaum provided the technical legal expertise. It was a partnership made in heaven. I'm soooo sorry they couldn't just kiss and make up.

I actually thought I might take another swing at this offering; enough time has gone by to dim the last experience. Thank God I read this review and can spend my money on something else. I've been looking without much success for a replacement. Michael Connelly in the Lincoln Lawyer is pretty good otherwise, but not quite quirky enough. If anybody has any suggestions I'd appreciate a reply. Thanks.

As far as I'm concerned, the Karp series ended when Tanenbaum and Gruber quit writing together. Tanenbaum's books since then are embarrassing, poorly written and full of errors, with little relationship to the earlier characters. I wish he'd started a new series instead of maintaining the 'fiction' that the series continued..and this from a reader who bought every hardback the day it was published until then. Try John Sanford instead.

Wicked Prey (Lucas Davenport Mysteries)